Pointing devices using the PS/2 mouse protocol send undelimited packets of data. The PS/2-mouse protocol provides no recovery mechanism at the operating system or application level. When portions of these packets are lost due to system activity, overrun, or connection/disconnection, then the pointing device become very erratic and the user is unable to continue using the computer. This is a problem with some pointing devices because they occasionally fail. For example, they may deliver a partial packet in response to RESET, or may fail to deliver a complete packet when held off too long. Furthermore, if hot-plug is allowed, the pointing device may be in the middle of a data packet when it is removed.